GBTA Europe appoints new advisory board Chairman

21st Sep 2011

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)—the voice of the global business travel industry—today announced that Torbjorn Erling, Global Meetings & Travel Manager, has been appointed as Chairman of the GBTA European Advisory Board for the next two years.

Mr. Erling, who runs the global meetings and travel programme for Ikea, will replace Caroline Strachan, Global Commercial Leader for Astra Zeneca, as she stands down on 21st September following a two year term at the helm of the European Advisory Board.

Talking about her departure during her welcome speech to 300 delegates at the network’s European conference, Ms Strachan said, “I feel honoured to have helped lead GBTA Europe since its inception two years ago and know that I leave the network with a solid foundation for growth and innovation. Torbjorn has been a part of that process and has always provided us with insight into the true potential for travel and meetings management in the future.”

The network will be announcing a raft of new advisory board members in the coming year.

Mr. Erling said about taking on the voluntary role, “I am really excited about leading this new Advisory Board in Europe. There’s so much potential to the GBTA European network and it is inspiring to work with a group of people who also want to challenge what travel, meetings and mobility management should look like in the future.”

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GBTA recently announced at its Convention in Denver that Ms. Strachan and Mr. Floyd Widener, also a European advisor, had accepted Global Advisor roles to the main GBTA board.